Mandie, are they blue crabs, snow crabs or crab legs? I have warmed mine on a rack in a roasting pan with about an inch of hot water, either on the stove top (tented with foil) or in the oven.

Years and years ago, a fishmonger told me that some people put them in the diswasher on a rinse setting and let them heat that way. Not sure if I would try that one though. :)

And at that price I would buy more and freeze them for a "just because" nights dinner.

Mandie, personally, I would plan one crab for each person.
To reheat just steam the crab long enough to heat it and dip in melted butter. Season the butter with garlic and lemon if you prefer.

If the crabs are whole you need to break them apart. It is easy to do.

Cooking a Dungeness Crab

Or you can break it up and reheat in the oven with lots of garlic and black pepper. This is a favourite of ours.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Garlic Roasted Dungeness Crab
=============================

From: Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska (Blog)
Adapted from Tra Vigne Restaurant
Dungeness crab should be alive when it goes into the boiling water; the crab has more flavor if you donÂt clean it before you cook it.

2 live Dungeness crabs
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped fresh garlic
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Put in the live crabs. Cook for 12 minutes. (The crab is only partially cooked because it will be oven-roasted; it takes 15 - 20 minutes, depending on the size, to fully cook Dungeness crab.) Remove the crab from the boiling water, and run it under cold water to cool it down. When the crab is cool enough to handle, remove the back, gills, and guts. With cold running water, carefully rinse off any guts that are sticking to the crab meat. (The crab may be made ahead to this point and refrigerated for 24 hours).

Preheat the oven to 500 °F.

Break the crab bodies in half down the center. With your hands, carefully remove the legs and claws, leaving the bodies intact. Use your hands to break the bodies in half again (in other words, the full body of each crab is broken into four pieces). Using a nut cracker or lobster cracker, carefully crack open each section of the crab legs and claws; try to keep each leg and claw in one piece. Put the crab in a large roasting pan.

Melt the butter. Drizzle the butter and olive oil over the crab, and sprinkle it with minced garlic, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Thoroughly toss the crab with the other ingredients so that all the pieces of crab are coated.

Roast the crab for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle the parsley over the crab and toss again. Return the crab to the oven for 2 minutes.

Place the crab on a large serving platter and serve immediately with napkins and an empty bowl for the shells.

Cooked Dungeness crabs, ask the seller to crack and clean them. Serve cold with a mayo/lemon mix. We serve with artichokes and broiled sourdough garlic bread. It's our Detritus Dinner. I never both trying to serve crab hot because the eating process (cracking and picking) takes so long, it will be cold anyway.

Desserts that are great are lemony things, like lemon bars or lemon sherbet with fresh out of the oven sugar cookies, or a lemon mousse.

I agree with sushipup's menu!! LOL
If you don't like artichokes, try roasted, then chilled asparagus.
Dungeness just begs for something fresh and green and lemon!

I bought a 2# crab and netted a little less than 1# of meat.
I used the meat to make mini crab cakes on Christmas Eve.

Yummy. Dungeness rules! My Albertson's had coupons and I bought it for $4.99#.

Enjoy your crab!
Deanna

More--- put two big bowls on the table, one with the crab parts, and one for the debris (crab shells and artichoke leaves).

I looked, and I see that I do NOT have my mother's recipe for the frozen lemon mousse. She made a graham cracker and butter crumb 'crust' that she pressed into pretty shallow wine glasses that she had (imagine a stemmed martini-style glass). The filling was a lemon mousse, and the glasses went into the freezer, and was served after leaving out of the freezer a short time. I am now on a mission to find this recipe!!!!! It was one of my favorites as a child, and I thought I had it, but I can't find it! PANIC!

You're missing the response I posted which is, be sure to bring them to a full rolling boil so that it comes out of the shell. It seems counterintuitive, but if you don't boil it long enough, it sticks to the shells. A bit of Old Bay in the water. And that sushipup said artichokes. Yum, crab and artichokes are the best combination! Crab is my "If I could only have one food for the rest of my life" food. Since I am now landlocked, I only get frozen. Frozen dungeness can be dang good if boiled/steamed back to life.

gangreen980,

There is lots of good advice here. Now I'm wondering what kind of crabs you have. Blue? Snow? Dungeness? King? Rock? Other? I'm curious.

Jim

She has Dungeness crab. Already cooked. That was mentioned in the thread that went missing.

Ann

Thanks everyone! This sounds like it will be easy for me to accomplish. DH is SO looking forward to crab tonight.

I'll see what looks good in the produce department for something green. Neither of us are artichoke fans, so I might see if I can find some decent asparagas. Failing that, it may just be some sort of salad.

I apologize for not specifying the type of crab - I did in the original post and forgot to in this one. It's dungeness crab. I gather they are more than plentiful right now, so the price has come way down.

Something lemon for dessert sounds perfect. Sushipup - if you can't find that recipe, I might just do a search for the lemon brownies I have seen here before.

Would a grocery-type store do the cracking and cleaning for us?

Thanks everyone!

Mandie

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity.

Dungeness crab at $3.99/lb.!!!!

Fabulous! Bon appetite!

Jim

That IS a fabulous price, I'd also stock up. Here I only find crab legs, frozen, and they're always about $10 a pound.

As for the lemon brownies, here's that recipe originally posted by Marilyn. I double the lemon juice because I like an intense lemon flavor and I add 1/2 tsp of baking powder because Ashley likes them a bit lighter and less dense. The baking powder does give them more of a cake like texture and less dense than brownies, so it depends on the texture you're looking for:

Lemon Brownies

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter; room temperature
4 eggs
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Zest from 1 lemon
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Additional lemon zest for garnish

Preheat oven to 350°. Line the bottom only of a 9X13X2-inch baking dish with Parchment paper and spray with Pam. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar and salt; add butter. Stir together eggs, juice from 1/2 lemon and zest from 1 lemon; stir into batter and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until set. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. When brownies are cool prepare glaze by stirring together powdered sugar and 2 tablespoon lemon juice; drizzle over brownies and sprinkle with additional lemon zest.

These are really good too, originally posted by Carol (dishesdone):

Lemon Custard Cakes

Unsalted butter, room temperature, for custard cups
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 to 3 teaspoons grated lemon zest (1 lemon)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
Confectioners sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°. Set a kettle of water to boil. Butter six 6-ounce custard cups and place in a dish towel-lined baking dish or roasting pan.

In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar until light; whisk in flour. Gradually whisk in lemon juice, then milk and zest.

With an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Add to lemon batter and fold in gently with a whisk (batter will be quite liquid).

Divide batter among prepared custard cups; place baking dish in oven and fill with boiling water to reach halfway up sides of cups. Bake until puffed and lightly browned (but pudding is still visible in bottom), 20 to 25 minutes. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioners sugar. from Everyday Food

It all sounds delicious, from the crab to the lemon dessert, yum.

Annie

Thanks, Annie

Yes, for that price it seems criminal not to indulge in crab for this NYE!

Thanks for the lemon recipes. I didn't realize the lemon brownies were so easy. I think I'll give them a go. Easy is good tonight. We've never been ones to "party hearty," but we do open the alcohol early in the evening and sip away. I sip and alternate with water but it still doesn't take me long to get tipsy!

Mandie

mandie, the lemon brownies are so easy and fast and it makes a big batch. I bake them for the office in a half sheet pan and they come out really well that way too.

Happy New Year, Elery says he's going to try to stay up until midnight. Yeah, sure he will. He'll be asleep on the couch at 10 pm, and I'll set an alarm so I wake up at 11:45!

Annie

Happy New Year, to you, too!

We have celebrated NYE pretty much the same way for the last 21 years. We eat dinner about 6, watch a few movies, watch the ball drop at midnight (except for the years we lived in Kentucky when we rang in the New Year at 11 p.m. central time), watch some of the music entertainment om Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's and wonder who the heck these people are, and then we're in bed between about 12:15 and 12:30 a.m.!

This year, we'll be up tomorrow morning for crab omlettes and muffins for the kids and will be glued to the TV at 1 p.m. watching the Ducks play in the Rose Bowl!!

Mandie

You can't stock up on crab unfortunately. You can buy it frozen, but I'd never freeze it myself. It will suffer quality a lot. The reason why we have artichokes is that it's finger food. You will get messy fingers eating crab. Lots of napkins are recommended!

I cannot find mother's recipe, which I was sure I had, and now I am crushed to not have it. She called it Frozen Lemon Souffle, and it was one of my favorites. I'll still keep looking, tho.